Inner ear of the coelacanth fish Latimeria has tetrapod affinities

Auditory reception in elasmobranchs, teleosts and amphibians may be mediated by various inner-ear sensory epithelia 1–3, including the basilar papilla, which seems to be the precursor of the cochlea in mammals. The origin of the basilar papilla remains a major unsolved problem for understanding the evolution of hearing in terrestrial vertebrates4–6. Study of living species indicates that the basilar papilla is a unique feature of tetrapods 6,7, but palaeonto-logical data indicate that this epithelium as well as a middle ear, is already present in crossopterygian fish 8–10. However, no basilar papilla has been found in the only living crossopterygian species, the coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae 11. I have re-examined the inner ear of adult and embryonic Latimeria and find a membranous specialization which resembles in structure, position and innerva-tion pattern the basilar papilla of tetrapods, in particular amniotes. No epithelium comparable to the basilar papilla was found in lungfish. I suggest that the basilar papillae of Latimeria and tetrapods are homologous and evolved only once in their common ancestor.     

Symmetry perception in an insect

Symmetrical visual patterns have a salient status in human perception, as evinced by their prevalent occurrence in art, and also in animal perception, where they may be an indicator of phenotypic and genotypic quality. Symmetry perception has been demonstrated in humans, birds, dolphins and apes. Here we show that bees trained to discriminate bilaterally symmetrical from non-symmetrical patterns learn the task and transfer it appropriately to novel stimuli, thus demonstrating a capacity to detect and generalize symmetry or asymmetry. We conclude that bees, and possibly flower-visiting insects in general, can acquire a generalized preference towards symmetrical or, alternatively, asymmetrical patterns depending on experience, and that symmetry detection is preformed or can be learned as perceptual category by insects, because it can be extracted as an independent visual pattern feature. Bees show a predisposition for learning and generalized symmetry because, if trained to it, they choose it more frequently, come closer to and hover longer in front of the novel symmetrical stimuli than the bees trained for asymmetry do for the novel asymmetrical stimuli. Thus, even organisms with comparatively small nervous systems can generalize about symmetry, and favour symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns.     

Holocene lake deposits of Bosten Lake, southern Xinjiang, China

A 9.25-m-long sediment core from Bosten Lake,Xinjiang, provides detailed information about changes in the water budget and biological acticity over the last 8400 cal-endar years. The chronology is constructed from six AMS radiocarbon dates on the terrestrial plant remains. Based onanalyses of TOC, CO3, detrital compounds and biogenic SiO2,lake level fluctuations and periods of remarkably-negative water budget appeared at 8.4-8.2 cal ka, 7.38-7.25 cal ka,5.7-5.5 cal ka, 3.7-3.4 cal ka and 3.3-2.9 cal ka, respec-tively. As they are in-phase with low lake levels at Sumxl Co and Bangong Co in western Tibet Plateau and with paleo-lakes in Inner Mongolia, a climate-induced change to some-what drier and warmer conditions is inferred. A further drop in lake level after 1320 AD of about 200 yr duration may heattributed to a negative water balance prior to the main phase of the Little Ice Age. Deep and stable lake phases of 1500 yr and 1800 yr duration at 7.2-5.7 cal ka and 5.5-3.7cal ka coincide with maximum moisture during the Holocene Megathermai in China. The long term trend towards aridity since about 4.3 cal ka can dearly be recognised. The reduced water budget of Bosten Lake from 640-1200 AD may be attributed to local effects.     

基因图的导向

基因图的导向ＢｅｎＨａｒｄｉｎ著梁宪实译许国平校随着世界上第一张牛和猪的基因构造图谱的公布，人们期望性畜育种技术将发生巨大的进展，进入一个崭新的时代。自从１９９４年４月第一阶段交互式基因组数据库进入计算机网络，美国农业研究署的化学家ＣｒａｉｇＷ．Ｂｅ...     

烧结工艺对含硅锰烧结钢性能与组织的影响

研究了烧结温度和时间对Ｆｅ－３．１Ｍｎ－１．２Ｓｉ－０．４Ｃ烧结刚性能与组织的影响，实验结果表明：提高烧结温度和延长烧结时间都能改善Ｆｅ－３．１Ｍｎ－１．２Ｓｉ－０．４Ｃ烧结钢的机械性能；并使烧结试样由膨胀逐渐向收缩过渡，Ｆｅ－３．１Ｍｎ－１．２Ｓｉ－０．４Ｃ烧结网在１１００℃以上烧结时，由于有液相的出现，合金化过程可以被大大地提高，在烧结过程中，只有那些较小的硅锰母合金颗粒才能全部熔化，而那些尺     

Synthesis and photocurrent response of porphyrin-containing conjugated polymers

In recent years conjugated polymers have attracted considerable attention because of their potential appli- cations in the fields of light emitting diodes, photo- voltaic devices, and sensors[1―7]. In the fabrication of semiconductor photovoltaic devices…     

用于信息安全的光学技术与数字技术

信息安全性牵涉的范围很广，从国防到我们的实际生活各个方面。本书的内容可以应用于安全、验证、识别、跟踪、鉴定。涉及光学科学与工程、数字图像处理、成像技术、基于计算机的信息系统、传感器、检测器和生物测量中各种不同的专门知识，本书的作者是这个领域的国际上公认的杰出人士，书中汇集了该领域最近的关键性突破。     

散射和结构——量子物理学中的要点和相似性

著名物理学家卢瑟福有一句名言：“如果你不能用简单的、非技术的术语解释一个结果，你就没有真正弄懂它”。作者们认为这样一句名言最恰当地表达了他们撰写本书的目的。